


I Blinked and the World Was Gone

by starryfrost



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Angst, Gen, Not fully accurate to canon, Puppet Cloud, Two Endings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 03:50:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4464386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryfrost/pseuds/starryfrost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You wade through the water<br/>Slowly your hands grow numb<br/>I wish you felt me falling<br/>I wish you'd watched over me<br/>You said you'd wait forever<br/>But I blinked<br/>And the world was gone”</p><p>A small exploration into Aeris’s death from her point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ending One

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on tumblr at starryfrost!  
> Feel free to listen to "And the World Was Gone" by Snow Ghosts if you want to see where my inspiration for this came from.

One second all Aerith saw was Cloud advancing, raising his sword above his head slowly, green slitted eyes staring in animosity that she never thought capable. She’d seen him glare, and hate fill his gaze, but never so strongly. Never so alien. And never towards her.

 _Calamity… danger… death!_ voices in her mind rose in crescendo as he approached. She couldn’t deny that she was scared. Yet she stood firm, hands resolutely clenched.

_-“I’ll… I’ll be fine Aerith. It won’t happen again. I won’t lose control again.” A pause. “I’m so sorry.” She drew him into her arms and gently hummed as he clung to her, as tight as he dared, which was not tight at all. –I’m sorry Cloud- she wanted to say, but she wasn’t quite sure what she was sorry for.-_

He stopped at the edge of the dais, where the sword finally stopped, raised into position to come down and cleave her in half. She did not run, despite the voices screaming in her mind, nor did she pay the members of Avalanche any mind, with their yelling in the background. She stood and gazed at Cloud right in the eyes.

A falter. Eyes flickered to sky blue and back to mako green, but it was there. The sword fell an inch. Eyes flickered yet again.

“Cloud? Please, come back.” Aerith urged, with her voice and eyes and soul. Relief crept and curled around her limbs more as Cloud faltered more. A step back, and the sword lowered, slowly. His eyes were sky blue and mako green, struggling between normal and slitted as he fought Jenova’s influence.

Seconds more passed, and they settled on the customary sky blue.

“Aerith? What…?” He shook his head, eyebrows creased in worry. Guilt formed on his face in the frown, in the realization that he had nearly killed Aerith with his own hand. He stepped forward, letting go of his sword with one hand.

“It’s okay Cloud.” She shook her head, a sad smile on her face. She reached for him, and him to her, their hands so close yet so far. “I for-“

A shadow from the sky, a glint of silver, and red, so much red. Her hand slipped past his, her body slumped, and words turned to air, to stillness. To red seeping from her torso. A distant ping as the Holy material fell into the pool of water echoed in her mind. Guilt and anguish on Cloud’s face, tears amassing in his eyes were the last thing she saw with her last breath. The distant cries of what must’ve been Tifa and Yuffie and other voices rose until a calming rush settled over her, drowning out all sounds.

A blink, and the world was gone, only to reappear in the blurred greens and blues of the Lifestream.

 _It’s okay, I forgive you, don’t blame yourself_ she wanted so desperately to reassure him. Yet how could she, when her spirit was all that could move. When she was helpless, unable to do anything but watch as Cloud gently lowered her to the ground. As he rose, pure, unadulterated hatred mixing with anguish and guilt, and stalked off beyond her field of vision. Could only listen, as the sounds of battle, distorted as they were by the essence of the Lifestream surrounding her, raged on.

What felt like an eternity, in reality only a few minutes, passed and they trudged back.

Cloud’s hands shook as he lifted her, barely tamed tears still coating his skin. Hands, muted and distant but still hands, gently shifted her dress to cover the gaping wound where blood still trickled sluggishly, jostled by movements. Hands closed her eyelids, and movement, slow, careful movement started up as they descended, to what Aerith guessed to be the edge of the great pool of water.

Distant sloshing, and gradual soaking of her dress hinted at Cloud wading in, cradling her.

“I…” A pause. “I’m so sorry Aerith. I want to ask for forgiveness, but I can’t. Not with what I did to you.”

A kiss on the forehead, a murmured “Rest peacefully, Aerith.” And the water fully enveloped her, and it was truly as if she was floating through the Lifestream.

Sunlight, then darkness; a blink, and the world was gone. Her eyes focused on her mother, extending her hand for Aerith to take. She lifted her hand, letting her body fall away as her mother pulled her into the Lifestream, into a hug that she hadn’t felt for years.

She glanced behind her in surprise as another body joined the hug, and a warm smile graced her face, prompted by the one on his face, by the black spikes and warm blue eyes she had missed so dearly for years.

“I missed you, my dear Aerith.”

 

“We’ll miss you. Your death won’t be in vain, we promise.”


	2. Ending Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the puppet Cloud chapter, where Cloud doesn't shake Jenova's influence off at that crucial moment.

One second all Aerith saw was Cloud advancing, raising his sword above his head slowly, green slitted eyes staring in animosity that she never thought capable. She’d seen him glare, and hate fill his gaze, but never so strongly. Never so alien. And never towards her.

 _Calamity… danger… death!_ voices in her mind rose in crescendo as he approached. She couldn’t deny that she was scared. Yet she stood firm, hands resolutely clenched.

_-“I’ll… I’ll be fine Aerith. It won’t happen again. I won’t lose control again.” A pause. “I’m so sorry.” She drew him into her arms and gently hummed as he clung to her, as tight as he dared, which was not tight at all. –I’m sorry Cloud- she wanted to say, but she wasn’t quite sure what she was sorry for.-_

He stopped at the edge of the dais, where the sword finally stopped, raised into position to come down and cleave her in half. She did not run, despite the voices screaming in her mind, nor did she pay the members of Avalanche any mind, with their yelling in the background. She stood and gazed at Cloud right in the eyes.

A falter. Eyes flickered to sky blue and back to mako green, but it was there. The sword fell an inch. Eyes flickered yet again.

“Cloud? Please, come back.” Aerith urged, with her voice and eyes and soul. Relief crept and curled around her limbs hesitantly as Cloud faltered more. A step back, and the sword lowered, slowly. His eyes were sky blue and mako green, struggling between normal and slitted as he fought Jenova’s influence.

Aerith waited with baited breath as the struggle continued. His arms were shaking as he fought between lowering the sword and raising it higher, and concentration twisted his face.

“Cloud. Please. You can come back, you did it before. You can fight it!” Urgency coated her words as the struggle continued.

At her words, he stopped moving. His eyes shifted back to mako green- _Jenova green to be more accurate_ – and stayed there. His sword rose and before she could even realize he moved, before anyone could stop him, he swung.

Sharp pain overloaded into numbness as the sword cleaved down her left shoulder, through her heart and lung, and pulled back out. She couldn’t even draw breath for a cry of pain, nor could she move her face from the disbelieving mask it had fallen into. With the last of her energy, she watched as Cloud shook his sword off and gazed at her in disinterest, before his eyes moved to look at something over her slumped form.

“… _Good boy Cloud, you did as I asked…”_ were the last words she heard before her world washed out into black.

She reawakened an indefinite amount of time later, her spirit trapped in her body, to Yuffie holding her head and Tifa hovering on her other side. Her body refused to move, and she desperately, so desperately wanted to wipe their tears away.

A murmur of voices washed over her from the others. Whispers, harsh words, incredulity, all questioning why they trusted Cloud after the Temple of the Ancients.

Sorrow swelled in her, and she begged the Lifestream to take her away. She didn’t want to see Tifa’s tears as she picked her body up, or Yuffie’s grief striken face as she carefully shifted her left side to be better supported, or Barret’s livid and remorseful face as he turned away.

Slowly, carefully, Tifa and Yuffie waded, side by side, letting her body float into the water with a few parting words.

“We’re so sorry Aerith.”                  “You… you really deserved better than this.”

The water surrounded her and enveloped her, the blues and blurry faces of Avalanche blurring into the greens and blues of the Lifestream as she drifted lower and lower.

Her mother took her hand from the Lifestream and pulled her into a hug; one she hadn’t felt for years. She clung as hard as she could, fighting so hard to stop the tears. Another warm body joined the hug, strong arms wrapping around her back and black spikes brushing against her head as he ducked his head and held them close.

 _I believed in him. He stopped, and regained control of himself before anything severe happened last time._ The words wouldn’t come out, nor would Avalanche be able to hear anyway.

_I was wrong._

_I’m sorry._

 


End file.
